Douglas Adams
cwilcox | May 2, 2010Jerry Coyne, the author of Why Evolution is True, recently held a contest. The rules were simple:
Please recommend one nonfiction book that you think everyone should read, and explain in no more than three sentences why we should read it. The book need not be about science, though those entries are welcome too. The only books excluded from this contest are mine and Darwin's Origin, which has been done to death.
Well, the winner has been announced, and the book everyone should read is...
Last Chance to See By Douglas Adams.
I'm not surprised - I've been telling you all this for years. No…
grrlscientist | April 25, 2010tags: Parrots the Universe and Everything, biogeography, lemurs, twig technology, conservation, endangered species, evolution, komodo dragons, kakapo, baiji, comedy, Douglas Adams, streaming video
Douglas Adams was the best-selling British author and satirist who created The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [DVD]. In this talk at UCSB recorded shortly before his tragic and untimely death, Adams shares hilarious accounts of some of the apparently absurd lifestyles of the world's creatures, and gleans from them extraordinary perceptions about the future of humanity.
cwilcox | May 25, 2009I'm sure most of you are aware that today is a truly special holiday. It's a day where we can honor those who have come before and done a great service to us - one single remembrance of those who have fallen before their time and the contributions they've made to us all.
Of course, I'm referring to Towel Day.
I presume you all have carried a towel with pride today. If you haven't, you are missing out. As the Hitchhiker's guide explains:
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around…
esiegel | February 27, 2008The Moon goes around the Earth, the Earth goes around the Sun, and the Sun goes around the center of the Milky Way. We know the Moon takes about 4 weeks to make its trip around the Earth, and that causes the Moon phases:
We also know that the Earth takes one year to go around the Sun, and that causes the seasons:
We also know that the Earth has been around for about 4.5 billion years, which means it has gone around the Sun about 4.5 billion times. Well, now I ask the question(s):
How long does it take the Sun to go around the Milky Way? How many times has it done that so far, and how many…